Things I learned at the Nashville Geek Breakfast

More than sixty local techies shoehorned themselves into Noshville Thursday for the December Nashville Geek Breakfast, which is now officially celebrating one year in existence. This beloved gathering may still be in diapers, but it’s clearly taking off like gangbusters. Here are a few things I didn’t know before I darkened the door yesterday morning:

  • You (apparently) can’t fry something enough for southerners’ tastes: They aren’t on the menu at Noshville, but culinary geniuses elsewhere have created deep-fried bacon and bacon burritos. (Yes, the bacon replaces the tortilla in the burrito. They really have thought of everything now.) Is there anything left to deep fry now?
  • I knew Andy was a geek–and I mean that in a good way–before I arrived this morning, but now everyone else does, too. ;)
  • Justin maintains the many Web functions running at Upper Room Ministries, and he can walk to his office from Noshville. That means parking is much easier. Upper Room is an initiative of the United Methodist Publishing House.
  • Jason is right: If you live in West Nashville and there’s a wreck on I-40, you’re not getting to downtown anytime soon. West End and Charlotte Avenue aren’t much help when everyone wants to use them as an alternate route.
  • Jason also played cards by candlelight in Atlanta during Earth Hour last year, when practically the whole city went dark for 60 minutes in support of energy conservation. You may have already heard this, but Nashville is a flagship city for Earth Hour in 2009. (Ok, work hat off now. My employer is helping to promote this very worthy cause.)
  • Sharon Cole’s company makes kickass table tennis robots that can shoot ping pong balls at you at 75 miles an hour. How long until they take over the world?

I’m astounded that it’s already been a year since the first Geek Breakfast. We’ve had a lot of fun during that time, as you can see from the photos, and now we’ve added a little philanthropy to the mix. Hope to see you at a geek breakfast in 2009.

Note: Wandering Knoxvillian Scott Maentz, who joined us for breakfast yesterday and is contemplating an East Tennessee version of our beloved gathering, has also weighed in on his experiences among us.

geek breakfast Comments 4 Dec 19th, 2008

4 Responses to “Things I learned at the Nashville Geek Breakfast”

  1. gavin Says:
    December 19th, 2008 at 10:48 pm

    funny, i didn’t meet justin. i know a lot of folks with the upperroom, even have my name on some publications there. the upperroom is actually not a part of the united methodist publishing house, but is a ‘gift’ to the world and its overseen by the general board of discipleship of the umc. the umph is a little different, but that’s the metho-nerd coming out of me. no one else really cares.

  2. Rob Robinson Says:
    December 22nd, 2008 at 10:30 am

    He seemed like a pretty cool fellow. Thanks for the clarification about the Upper Room. I have been aware of it for years but didn’t know exactly how all of that fit together. Metho-nerd has a nice ring to it. ;)

    It was good to see you and Erin at the Geek Breakfast. I hope you both have a good holiday!

  3. Jacqueline Buddy Says:
    March 14th, 2010 at 11:12 pm

    If you can not understand why we do what we do, then that is fine. This is not meant for you, it is meant for us. We do not ask you to understand. We do not ask you to come to terms with what we are doing. We simply ask that you leave alone those things that you do not understand. You are welcome to join us. Otherwise, leave us alone.

  4. Rob Robinson Says:
    March 16th, 2010 at 1:10 pm

    Thanks for the refresher on the Geek Culture Manifesto, Jacqueline. :)

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